OK, what's the difference between a bantam and a standard? If I introduce a roo or two into my flock do I have to candle eggs before I can eat them, and if they have a chick in them do I have to put them in a bator or have the hens sit on them? How can I tell which hens are laying and which aren't without sitting out there ALL day to watch? Thanks!
Biggest difference between bantam and standard is the size. Some breeds come in both standard and bantam, some in bantam only, some in standard only. No, you don't have to candle your fertilized eggs to eat them; couldn't see anything to start with anyhow. They have to be incubated or set on by a broody before they start to develop. Not all breeds of hens go broody and not all hens within a broody breed will. Just collect your eggs regularly and you'll have no surprises in the skillet. Without sitting out there all day, there's very few ways to tell. I've caught certain hens on the nest and have come to recognize their eggs by certain qualities. As an example, my Lil' Bit always lays eggs with speckles at one end only.
Bantams are the miniature ones. My friend's bantam hen raised some standard/large chicks who outgrew her at about 5 weeks. Tiny little full-grown chickens. Very cute, but very small eggs. Fertile eggs only make babies if they're under the right conditions. You can just collect your eggs and eat 'em with no worries.
A fertile egg shouldn't have a chick in it unless you pulled it out from under a brooding hen who was setting upon it for a week or more. If you collect the eggs every day, or even two, they will be fine for eating and shouldn't contain any surprises. Remember that any blood or meat spots in an egg aren't part of a developing chick. Even sterile eggs can have those. They're tiny bits from the hen's egg-making apparatus that got into the egg. They can be eaten or picked out.
